Case Study: Octogenarian Survives Difficult Surgery Because of Healthy Lifestyle

It was about 4:30 a.m. and 19 degrees Fahrenheit when 84-year-old Battista Locatelli started his morning walk. Dressed warmly, with a mask over his mouth and nose, he left his Parowan, Utah, home and walked five miles by flashlight. Just as every other morning, he had been up since 3 a.m., beginning his daily regimen of 60–100 pushups, leg lifts and other exercises.

“There is not one day that I don’t work on strengthening my body,” says Mr. Locatelli, founder of the iconic Battista’s Hole in the Wall restaurant in Las Vegas. “It’s all about eating right and exercising. I walk 10,000 steps faithfully every morning.”

“His heart and lungs are in the best shape”

His health consciousness started more than 30 years ago after vacationing at a health resort with his wife. There he learned about the benefits of eating fruits, vegetables and legumes; limiting meat; and avoiding fat, salt and sugar.

“I eat fish and a little chicken, but only boiled,” he says. “I don’t eat anything fried.”

After a quadruple bypass in 2002 at age 70, Mr. Locatelli began visiting Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute for further coaching and annual checkups.

He is a model patient, according to his doctors Michael Roizen, MD, Cleveland Clinic’s Chief Wellness Officer, and Richard Lang, MD, Vice-Chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute and Chair of Preventive Medicine.

“He calls almost every month to tell me how much exercise he’s been doing,” says Dr. Roizen. “He’s even challenged me to run up Angels Landing in Zion National Park — something he’s done nearly 70 times in recent years. His heart and lungs are in the best shape an 84-year-old can get.”

That was confirmed in December 2015.

11 units of blood, but no organ failure

During a difficult recovery from bowel obstruction surgery, Mr. Locatelli developed a urinary tract infection and recurring vomiting and diarrhea.

He was flown from his home hospital to Cleveland Clinic main campus, where his blood pressure dropped to 50/30 mmHg and he showed signs of retroperitoneal bleeding. A critical care team identified a burst gastric ulcer.

As gastrointestinal specialists controlled the ulcer, others worked briskly to maintain perfusion in Mr. Locatelli’s body. Nurses replaced 11 units of blood and more than 11,000 ml of crystalloids in approximately four hours.

Due to the trauma and massive transfusion, organ failure was anticipated. But three days later, Mr. Locatelli was transferred out of intensive care unit with no major complications. He soon resumed daily exercise, walking around the nursing unit.

“Dr. Roizen told me I’m alive because I have the heart of a lion — so strong,” says Mr. Locatelli.

“Bleeding of that magnitude would have killed most people half his age,” says Dr. Roizen.

A miracle or just healthy living?

Mr. Locatelli’s family calls his recovery a Christmas miracle. Doctors credit his decades of healthy living.

“That’s why you work hard to stay young,” says Dr. Roizen, “so you can survive major bumps as if they didn’t exist.”